Pant Lentil 406 (PL 406)

Pant Lentil 406 (PL 406, also written Pant L 406) is a small-seeded lentil developed by Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, and carried in state and central recommendations for the North East Plains Zone — eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand. It is valued mainly for its disease package: it is listed as resistant to rust (Uromyces viciae-fabae) and to Fusarium wilt, the two diseases that most often decide a lentil crop in the eastern plains. It matures in roughly 130–140 days and does well both as a timely line-sown crop and as a rice-fallow (utera/paira) crop broadcast into standing paddy. Its seed is the standard small red-cotyledon masoor type that splits cleanly into red dal.

Plant typeOpen-pollinated
Maturity130–140 days
Yield potentialAround 14–16 q/ha under managed conditions; 8–12 q/ha rainfed and under rice-fallow
Disease resistanceResistant to rust and Fusarium wilt
SoilWell-drained loam to clay loam; also grown on rice-fallow paddy land
SeasonRabi

• Sowing timeMid-October to mid-November for a line-sown crop; late October into standing near-mature paddy for a utera/paira crop
• Seed rate30–40 kg/ha (12–16 kg/acre) for line sowing; broadcast a little thicker (about 45–50 kg/ha) for a rice-fallow crop
• FertilizerA small starter dose only — about 15–20 kg N and 40–50 kg P2O5 per hectare basal, plus 20 kg S on light soils. No nitrogen top-dressing; treat seed with a fungicide, then Rhizobium and PSB
• HarvestingHarvest at about 130–140 days when the plants yellow, the lower pods turn brown and dry, and the leaves shed — before the top pods shatter. Cool-morning cutting reduces shattering loss.

Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.

• Uttar Pradesh
• Bihar
• West Bengal
• Jharkhand

• Pant Lentil 8 (PL 8)

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• L 4076 (Lens 4076)

  An IARI, New Delhi release (1993) from a PL 234 × PL 639 cross, recommended for the North West Plains and Central Zones. A bolder seed than the eastern masoor types, and often written simply as "L-407" in farmer lists.

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• IPL 316 (Pusa Ageti Masoor)

  An early, high-yielding small-seeded lentil from ICAR-IIPR, Kanpur, bred to escape terminal heat in the Central Zone and to fit tight rice-fallow windows — one of the shortest-duration lentils in wide cultivation.

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• IPL 220

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• HUL 57 (Malaviya Vishwanath)

  A short, early small-seeded lentil from Banaras Hindu University for the North East Plains Zone, developed as a mutant of HUL 11 and grown widely across eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

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• DPL 62 (Sheri)

  A bold-seeded lentil long grown in the Central Zone for the large-grain dal market, combining rust and wilt resistance with attractive seed size on the black soils of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

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